Social circles

One billion people - or a seventh of the planet’s population - are on social media site Facebook. And chances are this includes a lot of your customers, so why not take advantage and set up a business page for your store and start interacting with them on a whole new level.

Although Facebook might not seem the likeliest marketing tool for you, the sheer number of users and ease of accessing it make it hard to ignore. A recent HIM survey found that two-thirds of smartphone owners use them to view social media sites Facebook and Twitter.

HIM research & marketing director Jill Livesey urges retailers to get online. “It’s easy to get left behind when it comes to online, but social media cannot be ignored,” she says. “A lot of customers are looking for a web presence, and if businesses don’t offer this facility they risk losing these customers to competitors who do. More than half of the retailers we spoke to didn’t have any online presence.”

Livesey advises retailers to “start off small and build it up”. “Keep your digital strategy simple and focused,” she advises.

Steve Bassett, who runs four Londis stores in Dorset and Southampton, recently relaunched a Facebook page for his Weymouth store. Always ahead of the curve, Steve had one for the store four years ago, but stopped posting on it. “I decided a couple of months ago that it was time to start it up again, but do it properly this time,” he says. “I made sure I set it up as a business page rather than a personal one, and I have a couple of people in the store who manage the content.”

He admits that while it is difficult to measure exactly how beneficial it is, he believes the page is a great way of interacting with customers and building a stronger relationship with them.

“It’s not something you can easily measure the benefit of,” says Steve, “but at the end of the day it boils down to community marketing, which is vital for independent retailers, but difficult to put a monetary value on.”

One thing Steve was concerned about was the volume of posts to put on the page. “I didn’t want to bombard people with everything that was going on in the store, but I also didn’t want days without a post, so we set up a schedule that involves us posting something different every day,” he says.

Steve tries to vary his content as much as possible, alternating between photographs of the store, information on new lines and services, and offering prizes to customers who interact with the page. “It’s all about getting the balance right and ensuring that the page stays fresh and interesting,” he says. “We also put links to relevant local news stories and information on local charity initiatives. It helps highlight how involved you are in a community to your customers who may not already realise.”

Isla Craig of Londis Crianlarich in Perthshire set up a Facebook page for the store she runs alongside her and husband Bryan last December. She also uses it as a virtual noticeboard for the community. “We felt it would be a good way to interact with customers and build up a better relationship with them,” says Isla. “Where we’re based, we’re not necessarily going to attract new customers so it’s more important to build a relationship with the ones we have.”

Isla is amazed at how the page has taken off. “We still have the noticeboard up in the store, but a lot of the younger people who don’t use it still want to know what’s going on in the area, and Facebook was the way to do it,” says Isla.

Isla and Bryan attracted people to the store’s Facebook page through a combination of word-of-mouth and a launch day around Easter. “I use Facebook personally so I invited a lot of people from there,” she explains. “We also held a special launch day and entered everyone who liked our page into a competition to win an Easter Egg. It was just a little incentive to get people interested and it really worked well.”

Having captured people’s interest, Isla makes sure she keeps them entertained through interaction. “We ask what people think about the store and promotions we have. It’s a good way to make them feel included as well as gauging opinion about the store,” she says. “We find that customers tend to respond more to posts with photographs, as these stand out.”

Nisa retailer Rav Garcha uses Facebook to let his customers know about new promotions and lines in his store. “If we get a new product in, or have a promotion that I think our customers will like, I’ll post a message on Facebook about it,” says Rav. “It’s a cost-effective way of marketing to customers and is another way of interacting with them. As soon as it’s on display in the store, I take a photo and load it up to Facebook. It takes two minutes, but has a massive reach.”

Joe Williams of The Village Store in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, strives to give his store’s Facebook page a community feel. “We post messages about what’s going on in the store and link up with the Hook Norton page so that anyone can find out exactly what’s happening in the town or the store,” he says.

Of course, in order for the page to be productive, you need people on it to build a following, so Joe reminds customers in the store to find them online. “We market the page in-store with signs on shelves and window vinyls,” he says. “I’ll also mention it to people as they come in. You have to really push people at first, but once they get going they really get involved.”

Joe’s parents, Tom and Gloria, who also help run the store, have been involved in retail since before he was born, but social media is huge a departure for them. “They’re happy to let me get on with it, but it shows how marketing to customers has changed,” Joes acknowledges.

“It’s all about the next generation - they all have smartphones and are constantly checking them while on the go so you need to be able to reach them quickly,” says Joe.

Advances in technology are also making the job of marketing easier, Joe believes. “With social media and smartphones, you can take a photo and post it online immediately, whereas before you would have had to take the photo, upload it to your computer at home and then upload it to the internet, which could take hours.”

Joe says he saw its real benefit when posting about the store’s refit. “It’s really created footfall for us as people see the posts and want to have a look at what we’ve done with the business,” he says. “And if they come in once, then there’s no reason why they can’t become regular customers.”

He urges retailers to get online as soon as possible. “Retailers should really be getting on board with social media. It’s a low-cost, quick and easy way of reaching your customers.”•